My interest, in my roots was greatly helped by my Gt Aunt Rene RIDDELL, opening up the WOODLANDS HOMESTEAD, for family reunions, held every four or five years since the 1970's. It is now operated by the District Council and a Trust. [www.woodlands.co.nz]

Her Brother-in-law William RIDDELL served in WWI and revisited Scotland again in 1921, returning to New Zealand with an Edinburgh lass, Mary J. WHITELAW, as his bride.

Both visits to the Old Country awakened an interest in his family roots. Being a man who kept a diary, in later life, he started putting pen to paper, using those notes, to help record history as he saw it. As many families are named with roots in Scotland, here with I republish the first few pages setting out the family ties, as a forerunner, to a memorial piece that is to follow.
.........................................................This is a copy of memories, facts and figures as left by, Mr. William RIDDELL, of Gordonton, New Zealand, and edited by his sister, Miss Jessie RIDDELL. Sixty-nine foolscap pages in a tidy long hand and completed shortly before her death in August 1973. Since then entered on to computer disc by Paul & Marion SMITH, nee RIDDELL and others. [E. & OE Alan SHARP]

PEEPS INTO THE PAST
Or sidelights on the descendants of James RIDDELL(LE) and his wife Jane GOODALL

These lines from a well known hymn:-
Days and moments quickly flying
Blend the living with the dead
Soon shall you and I be lying
Each within his narrow bed.

And the following which I saw on a tombstone in the Kelso (Scotland) cemetery:-

Remember man as you pass by
As you are now, so once was I
As I am now so must you be
Prepare for death and follow me

are cause for sobering thoughts and reflections on the past and on the future too, for that matter.

The older I get the more regrets I have that I have so little knowledge of my forbears. That is who our ancestors were and their mode of living, and their experiences which must have been so very different from ours when one thinks of the marvellous progress that has been made over the last hundred years. There are plenty of books to be had that give us quite an insight into the experiences of those days, but I have my regrets that I never availed myself of the opportunity I had in my contact with the older generation. To listen to, or question as to their young days, which I now realise must have been very interesting, being so very different from my own, and the same thing now applies to my own young days and my children's. It seems impossible to hand onto the next generation little, if any of one's experience and knowledge that one gains as he passes through this life and each generation has to learn by making the same mistakes that the preceding generation made. Surely, a state of affairs that could be avoided, if we took more interest in the happenings of the past.

Granted always, of course, that there is a vast difference in these days of jet travel from the days when sail was the only means of travelling around the world. When one took a hundred days or more to come from Great Britain to New Zealand instead of two or more as it is today.

It is only of recent years that certain matters concerning our forbears have concerned me and I thought that possibly some others might be interested in the following notes on these lines. My knowledge is very limited I must admit, to say nothing of my capability to put it down correctly but I do not know of anyone else who has thought of jotting down certain facts of at least four generations of one branch of the Riddell family.

Origin of names has always interested me and the following may prove of interest. The border folks of Scotland through the centuries have had a very troubled time. They were noted for the raids made over the border to England for cattle, etc. and consequently had to contend with a lot of raiding in return. There is a story told of ancient times when one such raid by the English was over and the party was returning home. The inhabitants of one valley knotted the stalks of a well grown field of rye and then ambushed the party so that they were forced into the field of rye, where they were attacked and defeated. These border folk were afterward known as the Rye-Dell folk and so the name originated.

In a cemetery in the small village of Nenthorne, about five miles from the town of Kelso there is a tombstone to the memory of James Riddle and his wife Jane Goodall. This James Riddle either leased or worked on a farm known as "Girrick" on the Newton Don estate owned by the Earl of Balfour. Also he and his wife reared a family of six sons and three daughters. The sons' names were James, Walter, John, Andrew, Robert, and Patrick. James and Walter were the eldest two but how the others came I do not know neither do I know two of the daughters Christian names but one Margaret evidently was the eldest of the three girls. The two daughters unnamed here, both married. One to a man named Ballantine, and they remained in Scotland; and the other married a man named McLachlan, was widowed, with five or seven of a family, and migrated to Canada in 1907 (Some fifty years after her brother James had gone to New Zealand JR). Two Ballantine daughters were still alive when I was in Scotland in 1953. We called on them in Kelso but both have since died. One was unmarried.

Of the McLachlan's some years ago I received a paper from Scotland with a death notice saying that so and so McLachlan had died and that he was the last survivor of the family of McLachlan, late of Kelso Scotland. So as far as I know, that is all I can say of those two families. (I have found the address of a son John written in my war diary. The surname McLachlan should be spelled McLaughlan. He was in the Canadian forces in World War One but we never met, though we narrowly missed one another while on leave once at Berwick-on-Tweed.

Margaret, the above mentioned daughter, married a man named John McBain. He was a blacksmith originally but later proved a very successful inventive engineer and both he and four of his sons were responsible for quite a lot of inventions and established some very successful business in Chirnside and Tweedmouth particularly. John McBain invented one of the earliest mowing machines (hay) with a side delivery attachment, was also used for cutting grain crops. Windmills also were one of his main products. Later the sons carried on with internal combustion engines. Their marine engines were much favoured in the fishing fleets around the United Kingdom.

The Chirnside branch then operating as a company was experiencing a good export trade to Pakistan and the Argentine when I was in Scotland in 1953. Windmills, engines and water pumps were the main exports. Andrew, the youngest son was in 1953 mostly taken up with pea harvesting machinery, which was a great success. Another success of his was a revolving hen battery. This was as automatic as it could possibly be, even down to delivering the droppings into a barrow which only required emptying once a week. Gathering the eggs was the only daily chore. Andrew, in conjunction with his brother Walter in the early twenties of this century won a world wide competition held on the Scilly Isles (reputed to be one of the windiest spots in the world) for a wind machine for the generation of electricity.

There were four sons and one daughter in John McBain and Margaret Riddle's family. The daughter Jean, married George Greive, a printer and stationer in Berwick-on-Tweed. Their daughter Margaret is still conducting the business. In these five families, with the exception of the eldest son, Alex, who was married and died without issue, each had one son and one daughter. All the males died without marrying so the McBain name has ceased to exist as far as we are concerned. The daughter’s with the exception of Margaret Greive, married and are in England or Scotland. John's daughter, Nancy, is a Mrs Burgon and lives in Berwick-on-Tweed. Andrew's daughter, Margaret is a Mrs Jarvis of Little Clacton, Essex, England and Walter's daughter Beulah, is a Mrs Strang of Couper Angus, Scotland. John McBain, Senior, had several brothers but he was the only one who spelt his name with the Mc. Grand-dad Riddell(le) used to say he did not know where he got the name from as he was just plain John Bain when he knew him.

My wife's Grandmother was a Mrs John Brunton and was a sister of John McBain. We have kept in touch with these Bain's ever since our marriage. Mrs. John Bain and Mary Riddell are still writing weekly to each other.

The reason of my dealing with the daughters of James Riddle and his wife Margaret Goodall before mentioning their sons is that all of the six son’s, sooner or later migrated to New Zealand. All of them, with the exception of James and Patrick went to the South Island on arrival and for several years afterwards. The eldest son, James, was born on the 22nd of May 1831, and was married to Jane Oliver on the 16th May 1856. Jane Oliver was born on June 21st 1829.

They were married in the border country but must have left soon afterwards for Caithnesshire as their eldest son James was born at Latheran. (Somehow I have it as at Oxgangs Farm, Latheran Wheel, this being a small village about a mile from Latheran). These places being near the coast on the main road north, about twenty or thirty miles south of Wick. Their son James was born 22nd February 1857. Another child was born to them there also, on the 4th August 1858, named William. William died on the ship ‘Matoka’ when they were on the way to New Zealand on June 17th 1859. (His Mothers life was also despaired of on the voyage at this time but she rallied.) James came out to New Zealand under contract to some farmer in the South Island but broke the contract on arrival in Wellington. I believe it was owing to his wife's health. He was engaged at Wellington as a shepherd by George Hunter on his Terawhiti Station and remained with him for eleven years. Before proceeding further with the story of James and his wife Jane, I will try and give some details, as I know them, of the other five sons.

Walter married in Scotland and came to New Zealand when his eldest child, James, was at least eight years old. On arrival he settled at Onepuki in Southland. He was married twice having five daughters and three sons by the first marriage and eight sons and three daughters in the second marriage. These figures are not really correct as I believe there was a total of twenty-two in the two families. Sons in the first family were James, Andrew, and Walter and in the second, Con, Steve, Robert, Alex, Ewing, Hormah, John, and Fred. Some of these spell their name Riddle and some Riddell. How this came about I will try and explain later. Of the daughters, Marian, (always called "Weenie" even now at 85 because she was such a tiny child,) married a man named Edlington and the last I heard of her was living in Wairoa, Hawkes Bay. Amy married twice and is now a Mrs.Sharp, living in Frankton. Ella was a maternity nurse, married eventually and now passed on. Daughters of the first marriage of Walter Riddle were all married in Southland, their husband's names being Porteous, McLean, Stevens, Stalker and Simpson.

Walter moved from Onepuki to the King Country about 1907, some of the older sons being there before that. The eldest son James came north years before and he will come into the story of James and Jane Oliver further on.

John, son of James and Margaret Goodall, emigrated to Tasmania, married there and came over to New Zealand and took over the management of a sheep station near Oamaru, moving later to Fortrose, Southland. He had three sons and at least three daughters, Margaret (Mrs Hall) and two who, in our day, we knew of as Mrs Chisholm and Mrs Earwaker. A bachelor grandson, (James’s son), I believe is still in possession of the Fortrose farm known as Flag Hill.

Andrew and Robert also settled in Southland. Patrick was educated for the ministry in the Church of Scotland, I understand by the Laird of the district. He migrated to New Zealand after marriage and his first child was born at Waiuku. This child became the Rev. T.E. Riddle of Auckland in retirement, one time missionary in the New Hebrides and India. His book, written in retirement "The Light of Other Days" is well worth reading, it being an account of a very full and useful life. There were two other sons, James and Armstrong. Patrick's other charges were Rakaia, Canterbury and Wairoa, Hawkes Bay.

Could I leave the Riddle family story a while? I will make a few notes on the times when these six sons saw the light of day. The reasons why all six of them saw fit to leave their kith and kin in the old land, and set out to make new homes in what must have been, to them, a strange and foreign land, only to be reached by a fearsome journey. First I will quote from Arthur Mee's book "The Story of the Island", and this is what he says of Britain in the early 1800's. James and Margaret Goodall's eldest son was born in 1831.

Arthur Mee writes “The man who had little money saved was considered a danger to his master; he could ask for wages enough to keep his family alive. And so the thrifty man was turned away till he had spent his savings when the master knew he would come back again, let out from the workhouse on hire at cheap rates. From Bannockburn to Waterloo, something like this was the lot of the English working man." Still quoting Arthur Mee “We talk proudly of how the Island beat Napoleon long ago but how many of us know how we really beat Napoleon. A proud story it is as we read it in the history books: as it will read in the book of Judgement there is nothing more terrible in the story of the world. Time came when the burden of the war was too grievous to be borne and at last the employers complained that the high wages for men and woman made it impossible to pay the heavy taxes" Further on he writes “They took the children. They crammed the factories with machines so close there was just room for the little bodies to slip in and out of belts and wheels and spinning shafts. They took children at nine years old, they took them at six, they took them at four; and they kept them in the factories thirteen hours a day. They kept overseers to whip them when their little bodies became drowsy or slow after ten hours of work; they kept blacksmiths to rivet and chain them if they tried to turn away."

“Down the mines, too, these children went; they stood fifteen hours without a rest in the cold dark mine, opening and shutting trap doors or harnessed to heavy trucks. They were cheaper than horses: if a horse should die another must be bought, but if children should die there were plenty to take their places in the iron chains with which they dragged the coal which was making England great. We are not reading from the pages of a novel, or from a history of China; we are reading of the life of an ordinary child on our Island in the days that many still remember." And so on for page after page he goes on relating the tragedy of the working man of little more than one hundred years ago. Further on he writes

"Happily for England Lord Shaftesbury came and he fought like a hero for the children so that in 1849 little girls were saved from the slavery of the mines and no boys under the age of ten were allowed to go down. In that year one third of all the workers in our mines were children, for every two men that went down, one child went too. Robert Southey (1774-1843) wrote to his eternal honour, "that the slave trade was mercy compared with the child trade in the factories."

This is enough to prove that things were pretty tough when the family we are considering were growing up but let me quote from an article in the Otago Centennial Supplement of the Daily Times 1848-1948 for still further proof. The article or that small part I wish to quote reads "It was primarily in an endeavour to ameliorate their own lot that Otago's first immigrants set out from Scotland in 1847. Had eighteenth (& 19th) century conditions in rural England and Scotland remained static, these immigrants might have spent their lives contentedly in the districts of their birth. As it was, the rapid rise of industrialisation, the acute social and economic distress the Napoleonic wars and the unprecedented failure of staple crops combined to produce a situation against which, there was no appeal. Industrialism meant urban squalor and class cleavages. In Scotland a fifth to a fourth of the total population was suddenly within the brief span of forty years crowded together in the Clyde valley and no preparation was made to receive that influx save the hasty building, without plan or design, of exceedingly inadequate shelters. In England, too, great multitudes of labour were being huddled together into slums and cellars. And from most of the manufacturing centres, from Paisley and Glasgow, Bury, Rochdale, Wigan and Coventry, came the familiar tale of unemployment, distress and starvation. In fact in 1831, (note that this was the year that James Riddle, and his wife Margaret Goodall’s, eldest son was born), the country of England, was still the wealthiest country in Europe, yet in spite of the dreadful conditions upon which it was granted, ten percent of the population were on relief. Conditions which assured for recipients the removal of every vestige of human dignity and human freedom. In Scotland the system was both better and worse. The Kirk sessions attempted as a rule, with a decent humanity to keep body and soul together in the disabled; but the unemployed who were unfortunate enough to be able bodied could only starve till they ceased to be such."

Whether these conditions were the cause of the six Riddles coming away from Scotland I do not know but I would think that anyone under these conditions would be seeking a way of escape,(since writing these pages there has been a question on the Gateway to London programme on the wireless "What were the two main points in the Factory act of 1819 Great Britain? Answer - No children under the age of nine years to be employed, and the hours of employment reduced to seventy-two hours a week"), and the chance of emigrating to a fresh country would be a great appeal to the young and healthy.

Before returning to James Riddle (No. 2) and his wife Jane's story, I will add some more notes. The eldest son of all the families had been called James for generations and it was considered more or less a crime not to do so, thus there was always trouble in distinguishing the Jim. For instance you got Jim's Jim, Pat's Jim, Walter's Jim, (also known as Long Jim because of his height) and even Fat Jim. A second initial corrected the position to a certain extent for James Creighton, And James Oliver but the difficulty seemed to be solved ultimately by still registering for instance James Oliver Riddell but calling the bearer by the second name. (Our own father as eldest son was still only named James but in adult years added an extra initial J. for business purposes to avoid confusion, but for all that our eldest brother was still only given the name James).

Also in these present days there seems to be a controversy as to the correct spelling and also the correct pronunciation of the name. The six sons of James and Margaret spelt their name RIDDLE when they came to New Zealand although in James wedding license his name was once spelt RIDDEL and once RIDDLE. Sir Walter Scott in one of his pieces of poetry uses the single L spelling when he writes of:-

“Ancient Riddel's fair domain
Where Aill from mountain freed,
Down from the lakes did raging come”.

This also places the Riddell country near Jedburgh as the Aill, now spelt Ale, is a tributary of the Teviot, which in turn, is a tributary of the Tweed. In the dining hall at Abbotsford (Sir Walter Scott's home) the crests of the border families are painted on the ceiling and the Riddle crest is there at one end of the list. Robert Burns’ life also has a Riddell listed among his friends. How James Riddle (No. 2) came to alter his spelling of his name after coming to New Zealand I will explain later and also how it has spread to descendants of some of the other brothers. A lady whose ancestor rented a farm to Robert Burns in Ayrshire recently rang me up to see if I could claim relationship to Riddell's of Glen Riddell, Ayrshire as they were close friends of ancestors. Whether or not I could not tell her, but I knew they spelled their name RIDDELL and our’s in Scotland used the RIDDLE. James and Jane called their eldest son James only.

James and Jane's second son called his eldest son James Oliver and used the name Jim. James and Jane’s third son, Andrew, rebelled and his eldest son was Cyril but relented and called his second son James Oliver but used Oliver and now James Oliver has his eldest son named James Oliver using Jim.

Returning to the story of James Riddle and his wife Jane Oliver. Have I previously noted that James and Jane left Scotland with two children James, 1857, and William 1859. While working for George Hunter at Wellington eight more children were born to them,

Ten in all, but William (the first William) died on the voyage out and Agnes, the third baby born in Wellington, New Zealand also died in infancy.

Leaving George Hunters employ after fourteen years, James purchased a farm at Waitotara, which had evidently been previously purchased direct from the Maori’s. Either the Maori’s repudiated the sale or there was some fault in the title somehow as not long afterwards the Maori’s moved back on to the property. And it was only after some two or three years that the farm was given back to the Maori’s and a bill was put through the house of representatives during the term of office of Sir Donald McLean as native minister, giving James another farm at Karihaka, near Waverley. The Waitotara farm is still in possession of the Maori’s.

During the drawing up of the bill for the house the name Riddle was spelt Riddell and only in the final signing up did James notice that the name was so miss-spelt. On his objecting he was told that it would be better for him to adopt the new spelling than to alter the spelling in the bill. And so he did. His ten children had all been registered as RIDDLE, but as far as I know, William Oliver was the only one that ever had any difficulty in the matter. That was in connection with an insurance policy and he had to have a document drawn up certifying that W.O.Riddle was now known as W.O.Riddell. Some confusion also came later in Waverley when a nephew of James came to work for him, spelling his name RIDDLE. To avoid explanations, etc. he decided to alter to the RIDDELL spelling also. This sort of thing has happened several times through the years and there are now brothers of the third generation spelling their name differently. There was a time when James family knew that anyone using the RIDDLE spelling was a relative of some sort but this does not apply in the same way today.

Thanks for your posts, but I'm not thinking straight at the moment. It’s 6 am local time and I logged on while I have a cuppa before going back to bed. Did not retire until after mid night working on research, only to be woken by my Daughter at 4.30 am to report the local Fire Brigade, were up our farm access way, attending to THE OLD HOUSE. Well over 110 years of history burnt to the ground in just over an hour. Not lived in since my Grand Mother Annie, nee RIDDELL, died 19/11/1955.

Pyromaniac with no interest in heritage. What can you say ! The first tender did not record the rego, of a ute parked on the road, and the first fire emergency 111 report came by cell phone. Wonder if it was a pre-paid.

A unique building which started life as the FRESHFIELD ESTATE outstation, at the back of the Freshfield Estate. A two roomed building when my Grand Father arrived in 1905 after the estate had been broken up. Possibly partitioned in four, with a porch. Jim and Annie married in 1912 and the three bed roomed extension was added, plus veranda out front, and lean to scullery, out the back. The rusticated weatherboards that the whole building was clad in, after the extension, was rather unique, with limited examples in NZ Villas c1900 and also exported houses to the USA. An extra wide board of native timber, with more complex weather grooving, and ship-lapped profile than most.

I had resisted requests from the local volunteers, to use it as a practice fire fighting house, and on two occasions had tentatively organized a crew of helpers and machinery, so that it could have been safely dismantled, while being photographed , measured, and construction techniques noted. Unfortunately untimely deaths [50’s & 60’s] disrupted those plans.

Only last weekend I chastised a wedding party, and particularly the photographer who lead the party on to the property without permission, to use it as a back drop to wedding photos. In recent years six or more parties have arranged access from two nearby wedding venues. One being neighbouring WOODLANDS. I was most concerned because bulls had access to the paddock, and two years ago a bull who I thought very quiet, and had witnessed at least six wedding parties in the Autumn, got me to the ground and very nearly paralyzed me for life. Thirty percent displacement C5 / C6 which went undetected for four weeks. A thorough exam did not x-ray high enough up my neck the first time. But that is another story.
...............
Hibee, Riddells’ in Scotland c1890 has not been my focus of research, but I will ask around if any of my RIDDELL relatives are researching that period. Just might take some time before I can get back to you.

It’s now 7am, the tea is cold and I’ve raved enough.

Regards - ALAN SHARP.

PS It’s now 7.30 am and it appears that I did not manage to complete the post through the preview & post commands.

Its so sad when an old building is lost like that. We have an old cafe - called the 'Cyclists Rest' which was closed in the late fifties early sixties and looks the same inside as when the door was closed for the last time. I have heard it is to be sold and converted into a couple of flats in the future. It was a watering post for the local Clarion and Wheelers out for a week-end cycle. They did repairs to bikes in the sheds out the back as well so a very popular place. It would be ideal for a museum of social history but nobody seems to care these days do they ?

Yes I know how easy it is to lose track of time when one is researching. Early travellers on SH1B can attest to a light at my window, but I still need my sleep, so find myself cat-napping between a late lunch and afternoon cuppa, these past, very hot, summer days. Thanks TS for hosting my ramblings, and Lesley and Russell, for your encouragement of my research efforts. Alan

That's so sad Alan but glad no lives lost-any property developers got their eyes on the land?
My sister niece & I are part of the "Wide Awake Club" which meets up online in the early hours-very useful for keeping in touch with friends & relatives in different time zones.

If they have they are misguided. The land has been in family ownership since 1905. My girls are more distressed than I, about the building going up in smoke. It was getting to be a liability. With immediate family all engaged in shift type work (so we could not all attack it one weekend) I had just not got around to calling in some favours, and having a working bee with a couple of tractors, with front end buckets, so that we could safely demolish the house from the top down. Chimney top was very loose.

About three years ago my Brother-in-law, and his friend, had agreed to provide the labour in the autumn. Before that time arrived, both were dead, and they were not that old. Then Christmas time 2009 a new neighbour, with all the gear, was keen to help me in March, but he had a massive heart attack, while having a push bike ride. Only in his early 60's.

While the house stood the rather unique weatherboards were surviving quite well. Would have been very interesting dis-assembling, with tape measure and camera at hand. Mortised joints on bottom plate, and where cattle had fallen through the floor, after someone, having a nosey, left a door open, it was possible to see floor joists, and discern that three types of milling had been used. Put sawed, mechanical draw saw and circular sawed. My father had told of how, at one time, he had removed one of the match lining boards, only to find it had been painted with the name, of one of the two large timber mills that were at Taupiri c1900. I was keen to rediscover that board, attached to one of the extension walls. Presumably Grand Dad had bought a 'job lot' from their yard, possibly when they closed. That would have been a cheaper way of buying, the wood needed, to create the three bed rooms for his family.

For my money it had to be some pyromaniac at 4 o'clock on a clear, full moon morning, seeking a cheep thrill. There would have been an extremely small chance of a rat taking a lighted cigarette, some 50 meters, or more, from the road side, to a nest in the wall cavities. The house was very empty, and rats are not an issue at this time, because we have plenty of feral cats on the go.

Today’s antisocial miss fits, 200 years ago they would have been down a mine or dead. Such is life.

But then again, if you were one of the dozens of photographers, that used that old house for your photo essay, or taking commercial wedding photos, you would soon note it's departure, and have at your disposal a way of telling the world.

It's sad when you see family history & heritage go up in smoke.You have obviously nurtured a love of both in your girls.
On a much smaller but still distressing scale was my Great-Grandpa headstone.He was a Master Stonemason working for a large portion of his life for the Clyde Navagation Trust-funnilly enough my paternal GGreat-Grandfather worked for them in the same capacity at around the same time-I wonder if they knew each other?
Anyway when their beloved two year old daughter died her Father carved her a magnificent headstone.She was buried in Old Kilpatrick cemetery a twenty minute walk from the then family home.The names were added-Tommy KIA in France & Flanders,my Great-Granny next-he etched all the names including his own leaving only his date of death to be added.
Then came the Hurricane of 1967/68? When Grandpa & his elder brother Uncle Willie went to check on it it was rent in two.
When they enquired about the cost of repairs it was beyond their means-the stone stood in two parts against the Cemetery Wall for years before it disappeared.
It is only as an adult that I understand their great distress- a last tangible link with their beloved parents & elder brother & the elder sister that neither of them knew.I can still view my Great-Grandpa's handiwork though on the undemolished walls outsided the now demolished Dalmuir Parish |Church-when the Church was being built my Grandfather donated time,skill & materials to the building of the wall-every time I pass it I give it a wee pat & think "There you go Grandpa Waddell it's still standing".